How Entrepreneurs Are Fueling The Future Of Job Creation

During my trip to Japan earlier this month, I spoke to audiences about why the jobs outlook for young people is unlike anything we’ve seen before. And how learning to think and act like an entrepreneur was the key to future job creation both in terms of making your own job and employing others.

In my most recent Forbes article, I wrote specifically about where jobs in Japan come from and why a 10 year-old in Japan is most likely to work for a company which doesn’t exist yet.

Spoiler alert: startups.

Japanese companies founded in the past 20 years created a net 3.1 million jobs whereas Japanese companies which are 20 years old and older shed a net 1.2 million jobs in that time.

“The key implication for policymakers concerned about restarting America’s job engine, therefore, is to begin paying more attention to removing roadblocks to entrepreneurs who will lead us out of our current (well-founded) pessimism about jobs and sustain economic expansion over the longer run. This much-needed shift in focus cannot come soon enough.”

Removing roadblocks to entrepreneurs may sound like a no-brainer. As should teaching entrepreneurship – instilling an entrepreneurship mindset – in young people.

While our entrepreneurship education programs are growing, the global, government and business commitment to teaching entrepreneurship and nurturing startups is just now taking root.

The ideas are earning notice with leaders at the World Economic Forum which had a panel this January titled, “Reshaping the World through Entrepreneurship, Education and Employment.” And later this week I’ll deliver a presentation on the power of teaching entrepreneurs to the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai.

So word is getting out.

For me, the message is as simple as the numbers. There won’t be enough jobs for all who need them. But the jobs – the new jobs – come from startups. And startups come from entrepreneurs. And we can teach entrepreneurs.